Anne and Andy Bibel. Thank you for the new Garmin! It did more than just keep us on the right road, it let us know how high we were climbing, how far we had to go, and even what time the sun rose and set. Peter & Jane Eichten. Thanks for the new tent! We […]
Like I previously mentioned, we bussed to Bursa from Bartin and stayed with Ahmet and Sevil for a night before heading off to Çanakkale. We then decided to head back to Bursa and catch the ferry to Istanbul from there on our last day of riding. Our first plan was to arrive on Wednesday night, […]
Jared and I got engaged in 2012 in Bergama, Turkey. After our trip we became friends with a cyclist from Bergama on Facebook. He told us that if we were ever in the area again we had a place to stay. We appreciated the gesture and assured him if we were ever there again we […]
Jared’s crash happened 5 km from the end of the ride and since he was taken to the hospital in the ambulance I was left to figure out where to go and how to get his stuff. Thankfully I didn’t have to do this alone. Tunç, one of the riders and a close friend of […]
We were shown to the meeting area and started meeting all the cyclists taking part in the festival. We were also given brand new cycling jerseys and buffs, which was awesome since I had been wearing the same cycling top for nearly 2 months. After a quick breakfast and a few instructions we were off. […]
After our express trip through Georgia, we were back in Turkey and on the Black Sea. We were both excited for the “last leg” of our trip and I was excited to be on the Black Sea for the first time. The riding is pretty easy, flat roads and big shoulders, but lots of traffic […]
When we first started planning this trip we had allotted 3 weeks for. Georgia and Armenia. But as we were resting in Bishkek before we flew to Turkey, we decided to scratch Armenia from our plans, only spend a few days in Georgia, and spend most of the last 6 weeks in Turkey. But one […]
We were warned by other cyclists that the kids in eastern Turkey like to throw rocks at cyclists but we hoped it wasn’t true since we loved Turkey so much and we didn’t want anything to ruin our perfect image of the country. Sadly the rumors were true and we had a few run ins […]
We had spent most of the day climbing in the heat and hot sun, while fighting off kids throwing stones at is, but more on that in a later post. It was a pretty long climb but the view of Ararat once we were over the top was so worth it. It’s a pretty spectacular […]
Our first day out of Van brought us to one of the best campsites we have had. After the day riding around the eastern side of the lake, we were on the road to Kars and passed through the city of Muradiye. We were told by our good friends, Katie Tibbetts and Stephen Sessions who […]
As we were leaving Tatvan, we heard from a couch surfer named Sedat in Van offering us a place to stay. Since we already had a few days off, we decided to take him up on the offer but only stay the night. It was a short but nice ride from Tatvan to Van, with […]
Our original plan for our first week in Eastern Turkey was to cycle from Elazig to Van, which was about 550 km, and take a day off. Unfortunately we heard backk from any couch surfers in Van at this point, but we got a reply from Kursat in Tatvan.
We had been on the road for two days and they were two hot and rough days. The roads were up and down and up and down with little shade and wind as hot as a hair dryer. It was getting to be around 5pm and close to our time to find a place to […]
Our time in Kyrgyzstan took us on the same road twice, Bishkek to Osh then Osh back to Bishkek. On our way there we stayed in, what we can guess was an old Soviet hotel. It was being remodeled, floor tiles torn up, no running water in the bathrooms, and repainting the outside. There was […]
After our night with the mosquitos and the cooker breaking, we were up early to attack the climb. The wind was down and we had a good road all the way up to the start of the climb. On our way up we met a German couple who were on their way down. This was […]
Once we left Kieran and Marley in Khorog, we had 13 days to cross the Tajikistan border before our visas expired. We had to cover 500km (310miles) of tough terrain that included numerous peaks of over 4000 meters (13,100ft) with the highest at 4665 meters. We knew it wouldn’t be easy but we had our […]
After days and days of waiting to go to the Pamirs we were finally there. We enjoyed 4 days of cycling with Kieran and Marley, the British/German couple we met in Dushanbe, but said goodbye in Khorog as we headed east through the Gunt valley and they headed south to the Wakhan valley. It was […]
After 10 days of waiting and numerous emotional roller coasters, our dream of riding the Pamirs was finally coming true. After our 11 hour ride to Kalaikhum from Dushanbe and a quick 6 hour sleep, the four of us (me, Jared, Kieran, and Marley) were ready to go. We loaded up our bikes with enough […]
While waiting for our GBAO permits in Dushanbe, Jared and I got a bit restless. We decided to leave the city for a few days and explore the Fann mountain range just north of Dushanbe. We set off on a Friday morning and returned to the guesthouse early Monday hoping to get our permits. The […]
The time we spent waiting in Bishkek was child’s play compared to Dushanbe. Let me start at the beginning; Bishkek. While in Bishkek we got our Tajikistan visas and were under the impression we could get our GBAO permits, which are needed to ride the Pamir highway, as well. When we went to the embassy […]
